Four companies ordered to shut for defying MCO

JOHOR BARU: Four employers have been given notices to shut down operations in Johor for failure to abide by the movement control order (MCO).

Eighty-nine employers have been investigated as of April 8 following complaints of them flouting the MCO, said health and environment committee chairman R. Vidyananthan.

“The overall compliance among employers has been satisfactory, where only four out of the 89 that were investigated were found to have failed to abide by the MCO.

“Those who were investigated were also reminded to follow safety and cleanliness regulations, including providing face masks, sanitisers and gloves as well as educate their workers to wash their hands with water and soap while also practising social distancing,” he said.

Among complaints received included companies that operated without permission letters from the authorities, companies not classified under essential services that continued to operate and companies that had laid off their workers.

Other complaints included companies that had failed to pay their workers during the MCO, companies that forced their workers to take unpaid leave as well as companies that failed to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) outlined by the authorities.

Vidyananthan said a special committee consisting of the state Labour Department and state Occupational Safety and Health Department had been given the power to take action against companies failing to abide by the MCO.

On another matter, he said that the overall MCO compliance rate in the state had continued to decline over the past few days.

“The compliance rate has dropped from 96.92% on April 14 to 96.51% on April 15. Previously, the compliance rate dropped from 97.09% on April 13 to 96.92% on April 14,” he added.

Vidyananthan also said 759 locations across the state had been sanitised as at April 15.

“These include public areas such as markets, bus and taxi terminals, government buildings as well as petrol stations,” he said.